The Game
by Jello Ink
Summary: Squall becomes suspicious when suddenly all the 'dangerous spies' SeeD has been hired to assassinate look like scared kids. Can he, Quistis, Seifer and Selphie unravel the web of deception in time to change the corrupt world they live in?Quiefer/Squelphie


Disclaimer: All I own is a hyper active imagination stuck forever in 'what if' mode, and the cheap ass software application WordPad. FF8 belongs to Square.  
  
~*~  
  
_In this game, the players are very real. They have lives and hometowns and families, principles and religion and structure. The rules are sometimes bent, played with, broken. Who decides the meaning of the game is unclear, but the objectives are always the same. Win. Not tie, not show a good effort. Come out the victor and the world is your oyster. To the loser, life is lost. Other beliefs have been held, indeed, maintained for a number of years. But then, it all comes down to winning, doesn't it? Whether or not what you have won is worth having, whether you played by the correct rules for your game is irrelevant. The end will justify the means..._  
  
~*~  
  
As Squall Leonhart entered the shack at the edge of Dollet, he gave little thought to what he would find. Cid's briefing had described the occupants as hardened spies worth not even their price to be exterminated. He was certainly not prepared to find a hovel full of scared-looking kids, unarmed, and skinnier than was healthy for most string beans. The average age looked to be about sixteen or seventeen.  
  
A good SeeD's place was to follow orders without question. Under Irvine's gun, the group of minors went down without a whimper. Squall's eyes landed disturbingly on a dead girl who looked shockingly similar to Rinoa. His heart jumped in his throat for a moment. Rinoa had left Garden two months earlier. What if that was her bleeding on the cold floor?  
  
But of course, it couldn't be. Her hair was not really black, just stained. Squall refused to think about what it was stained with. Besides, Rinoa had gone back to Timber and joined up with the Owls again. He was significantly relieved. It was, after all, him not loving her the way that she wanted him to that had driven her away. Had that been her, he would have blamed himself to eternity and back.  
  
He took a better look at the bodies that littered the floor. Irvine was ransacking the place for spy-like papers or newsletters produced for the underground. They really needn't have sent the two of them. He hadn't fired a single shot and here they all lay, each with two or more of Irvine's bullets in them. It made him a bit sick to look at them, despite the horrors he had witnessed in his career. Somehow, this was more disturbing than Ultimecia. Their dirty, drawn faces peered up at him with expressions that varied from surprise, pain, horror, and of course the most common was the peaceful lack of any expression at all that constituted death. Some had their eyes open.  
  
Squall jerked his eyes up quickly. They were as young as he had first perceived them to be. How could the Rinoa look-alike have been a dangerous spy? She was barely old enough to drive. Despite his will, he found his sight travelling down again. Another girl was clutching a book called Jane Eyre to her chest like it was her lifeblood. A boy had dog tags hanging around his skinny neck, resting between the ribs that Squall could have counted.  
  
"Irvine..." His voice was gruff and sharp in the silence. Irvine half-turned back to him, raising an eyebrow. Squall noticed he hadn't even glanced at the people on the ground, but gone straight for the drawers that held little but a few pencils. Suddenly he didn't seem the right person to confide his doubts in. ".... Let's get out of here," he said, trying to look as if he were only disgusted to be in a room of dead spies.  
  
"Sure buddy, there's nothing here anyway." Squall nodded.  
  
_Why am I not surprised?_   
  
Irvine said nothing on the way back to the Ragnorak, and Squall offered no conversation. The ship was where they had left it, and within a matter of minutes they were in the air and halfway back to Garden. Squall's thoughts drifted back to the girl. She had a name; he had seen it sparkling on her silver identification bracelet. It was probably the last valuable thing she owned. Jillia Ince. Her last name had been obscured by blood. Suddenly Squall's vision swam.  
  
"Irvine...take over...break...need..." He stumbled off to the bathroom, leaving a bewildered Irvine behind him. He spent the remainder of the trip back to Garden slumped unceremoniously over the toilet, throwing up.  
  
~***~  
  
When Squall finally made it to his dorm, pale and still sick, he lay down on his bed for some rest. He wasn't going to get any.  
  
"Would Squall Leonhart and Selphie Tilmitt please make their way to Headmaster Kramer's office immediately. We await your presence for a very important meeting." The public address system crackled and screeched a bit before a click was heard. Squall threw a pillow at the offending speaker.  
  
Groaning, he hauled himself down the hallway, watching a hyper Selphie skip ahead of him. The girl had so much energy it was ridiculous. He tried closing his eyes halfway, but it only conjured up images of the dead girl named Jillia Ince. He shuddered, defeated, and slunk into Cid's office.  
  
"Glad you could join us, Commander!" came the patronizing voice of the Headmaster. He nodded curtly and sat down, surveying the others in the room with him. Quistis, Seifer, and of course Selphie sat in the circle of chairs around him. Seifer had recently passed his SeeD test, prior to being found ripped, battered and smelling of fish and blood on Garden's doorstep.  
  
"You are here to be briefed for your next mission. Commander, I'm sorry it falls so close to your last, but nothing could be done. This is a rough group, and they need to be taken out at all costs. Naturally, we need the best of the best. There is an organization in Timber, planning an armed assault on a major supermarket within the next month. They have been known in the last few years to be an extremist terrorist group, but no one could nail them down. Well now we know where they are, and your mission, SeeDs, is to find and assassinate the leader. Take no prisoners. I don't care who stands in your way. We don't have the time to mess around.  
  
Their name has been reported as the Timber Owls. Go get them, SeeDs, leave your fear behind."  
  
Squall was stricken. He cleared his throat and looked shrewdly at the Headmaster. None of the other SeeDs seemed to find anything particularly spectacular about Cid's speech.  
  
"Sir, are you sure that's the name of the 'terrorist group'?" He frowned in confusion.  
  
"Positive."  
  
"But sir, I'm familiar with that group. They're just a bunch of kids no older than we are. They're resisting the takeover of Timber by Galbadia. That's all."  
  
"Squall, do not presume to question Garden's sources. These 'kids' are dangerous spies who..."  
  
"I thought they were terrorists, Headmaster." Cid blanched.  
  
"Well, they spy too you see..."  
  
"Just like the shack of skinny kids we executed this afternoon? Those starving, poor sons of bitches who had no idea why we were there? Headmaster they barely owned a pencil, never mind an underground newspaper!"  
  
"Commander! Of course it appeared that way! They are highly trained spies. It only makes sense for them to cover their tracks."  
  
"Why didn't they even see it coming sir? Why, if they are such extraordinary partners in espionage, did they shriek and cower in the corner as we opened fire on them?" He choked with the memory of the girl, motionless on the floor, her hair not dark as he first thought, but covered in blood. "And as for the Timber Owls, I know the leader of that operation, which is why I know so much about them. Maybe you should have done your homework more thoroughly, Headmaster, because the leader of that group is Rinoa Heartilly."  
  
Quistis, Seifer and Selphie sat open-mouthed at hearing so many words coming out of their friend's mouth. They looked at Cid, who seemed red and angry, expecting an explanation to the shocking new information they had just been privy to. He didn't seem to be about to offer one, but presently he opened his mouth.  
  
"You will complete the mission. That is the only way you will see. Open your eyes, Commander, and look past appearances. We're counting on you to regain your senses Squall. I understand the last mission may have left you a bit unnerved. I expect nothing but your best work on this mission. You will meet on the Ragnorak at 1300 hours tomorrow. Dismissed."  
  
Squall stormed out of the office and to his dorm without stopping to talk with his teammates. He threw himself on his bed, determined not to dwell on his humiliation. He wanted to get some much-needed sleep.  
  
A short while later, his eyelids closed. That girl haunted his dreams. That same girl he saw on the floor in Dollet. He couldn't get her out of his head.  
  
She stood before him; he could now see her clearly. She was clean, normal, as though that day in Dollet had never occurred. Her dark blonde hair hung past her shoulders, brown eyes staring, blaming him. His dreaming mind did not register why exactly he knew what she looked like. A silver I.D. bracelet glittered on her left wrist. His breath caught in his throat when she pointed at him.  
  
"You!" And with that one word, Squall felt as if he had been condemned. The dream spun and faded, the word 'you' echoing, following him into reality. He woke up gasping, in a cold sweat.  
  
The rest of the night he sat awake, staring suspiciously into the darkness as he awaited the breaking dawn.  
  
~***~  
  
"What's with Puberty Boy?" asked Seifer on their way to the cafeteria. "Little edgy?" Quistis glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. Selphie had gone off to her dorm to catch some sleep before the next day.  
  
"The Commander was tired after his mission. Besides, we've just been ordered to assassinate Rinoa. What did you expect?" Seifer gave Quistis a look. She sighed. "I never really liked her but killing her is a bit much. Squall obviously has some issues about executing those spies from Dollet, although from what he said, they sounded more like village kids than criminals. He has the look of a guy who saw a lot of blood and gore on innocents, okay? Happy now?" Seifer smiled.  
  
"You know sometimes I actually understand you when you turn your remote from rigid-as-a-dead-cat to just faintly stiff. Should happen more often." He nodded his approval. Quistis stared at him for a second before she had to laugh.  
  
"Sometimes I don't know whether to kill you or hug you." She said, blushing a little when she realized the full implication of the last portion. He raised an eyebrow, smirking in an infuriating way.  
  
"Don't look embarrassed, I know I'm irresistible." She laughed again, punching him in the arm a little less than lightly.  
  
"I was talking brother-sister hug, not 'I want to grope you'." He snapped his fingers.  
  
"Damn, so close." They laughed again, together. Then Quistis whipped out a pack of cards and grinned wickedly.  
  
"Triple Triad?" It was a well-known fact that Quistis never lost a game. Seifer had an Ifrit card she'd been wanting to get her hands on for a while. Seifer took another pack out of his pocket and smiled.  
  
"Always."  
  
"Open, Same Plus?"  
  
"No problem."  
  
Of course, Seifer lost (somewhat less than miserably, to his credit) and had to hand over his Ifrit card, moaning all the way.  
  
"But Quisty, can't you take any other card?" Quistis shook her head happily.  
  
"No way, hand over the GF and like it. Don't think acting like a sad puppy is going to let you off the hook." She started to walk in the direction of the dorms, Seifer in tow. "I want that card before I get to my dorm, Seifer." His voice echoed down the hall when he next spoke.  
  
"But Quisty..."  
  
~***~  
  
The next afternoon in the Ragnorak, Squall looked tired and edgy, Seifer was moaning about the loss of Ifrit, Quistis was looking faintly annoyed from listening to Seifer, and even Selphie looked less than cheerful. In short, the whole group was out of sorts, and of course that eventually led to an argument, antagonistic creatures that they were.  
  
"Seifer stop whining, in a few more minutes my head is going to explode!"  
  
"Give me back Ifrit! I demand a rematch!"  
  
"Seifer...shut it." This from Squall.  
  
"You want a piece of me Puberty Boy?"  
  
"Seifeeeerr, you're giving us all a headache."  
  
"Shutup, Messenger Girl, who asked you?"  
  
"Leave her alone." Squall was on a roll, two comments in thirty seconds.  
  
"Since when do you defend her? Maybe you should get more sleep. Did ickle Squally have a bad dweam wast night?"  
  
"Leave him alone." Quistis's only comment thus far.  
  
"He's a big boy Quistis, why don't you leave him alone?"  
  
"Selphie bug off! Nobody asked for your opinion!"  
  
"Oh why don't you go back into Instructor mode, you're quieter." Selphie sulked, but somehow it looked out of place on her.  
  
"Leave her alone!"  
  
"Seifer, I'm a big girl..." Seifer grinned, looking a wee bit lower than her face (if you catch the drift).  
  
"I know..."  
  
"Oh my God! Seifer! You jackass!"  
  
"Would you all kindly SHUTUP?" Everyone froze. Squall had screamed. Squall did not scream on a regular basis. He was obviously majorly pissed off, which would result in heads rolling if someone spoke another word. They slunk to their seats unhappily, glaring at each other.  
  
Squall brooded unhappily, thinking about what exactly he was going to do when he had to make a decision about the Timber Owls. The girl, Jillia, flashed through his mind again and he knew he could never bring himself to kill them. Garden had to be wrong.  
  
"Selphie." The word shattered the silence of the control room. "Can...can I talk to you?" Somehow she was the only one he felt comfortable confiding in. They left Quistis and Seifer by themselves as they moved into another room.  
  
"What is it, Squall? You can tell me." She was back to sunny Selphie again.  
  
"The Timber Owls. Doesn't it seem strange to you that they suddenly turn into 'terrorists' in Garden's eyes? Rinoa is the head of that operation. Rinoa. Does she seem capable of plotting the mass murder of innocent people?"  
  
"Well no, Squall, but we can't just ignore the Headma..."  
  
"Can't we? Listen, when we get to Timber we are not just going to sit back with our weapons and kill a bunch of kids. We're going to ask some questions first. Find out the right things. It's not as if Cid will really check up on us." Selphie nodded, albeit in confusion.  
  
"I understand. Why were you so shaken up this morning?"  
  
"The mission...they were *kids* Selph...younger even than us. Dirty, scrawny kids who hadn't seen a meal in days. And..." He choked on his next words, and Selphie's eyes widened at the tears glistening in his eyes. "...and we killed them. All of them. No one can tell me they were spies. Not even Cid. They're wrong Selphie! I don't know what kind of game they're playing, but I intend to find out."  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
"Quistis."  
  
"What, Seifer?"  
  
"What do you suppose they're talking about?"  
  
"I wouldn't know. Squall seems very upset about whatever mission he had before this one. I can't understand about the Timber Owls. Everyone knows damn well they aren't any terrorist group."  
  
"Then why are we doing this?"  
  
"Well we have to at least make it look like we're going to do what Cid says...after that, it's up to us how we deal with it. Whatever course of action we take, Cid is too far away to stop us...at least not immediately."  
  
Seifer looked at her for a second, as if pondering what she had said before he spoke again.  
  
"Quistis?"  
  
"What, Seifer?"  
  
"Can I have my Ifrit card back?"  
  
"No, Seifer. Try to be serious. We've got a real problem on our hands."  
  
"I can guarantee you Rinoa isn't the head of any terrorist faction. Now give me my card."  
  
Quistis sighed. This was going to be a long mission.

  
  
A/N: And this would be where I got writer's block. If you should so desire to find out whether Garden is evil, or what exactly is going on with the sudden murder of innocents, please deign to tell me so by clicking the blue-ish box below this note. ^_^ 'Til next time!


End file.
